Authored by Mark Carmona, City of San Antonio Chief Housing Officer
The conversation around housing affordability has historically been framed as a social or welfare issue, but for too long, the housing sector has overlooked its critical role as an anchor of local economic and workforce development. In communities across the country, the failure to house our workforce is imposing an invisible tax on regional prosperity. This tax is not paid in dollars to the government, but in crippling employee turnover, lost recruitment opportunities and diminished productivity as the very people who power our schools, hospitals and service industries are forced out of the communities they serve. For housing professionals, tackling this affordability crisis is no longer a matter of charity or compliance. It is a direct investment in economic competitiveness and a necessary strategy for talent retention.
The economic impact of the affordability crisis extends far beyond the housing market itself; it fundamentally undermines the stability and growth potential of the workforce:
- Shrinking the Talent Pipeline: When the cost of housing exceeds the reach of middle-income workers (often defined as those earning between 80 percent and 120 percent of the Area Median Income, or AMI), employers can no longer recruit from the immediate area. A construction manager, a city planner or an entry-level nurse simply cannot afford to live near their jobs. This reduces the effective labor pool to a small, highly specialized and prohibitively expensive geographic radius, leading directly to labor shortages in essential fields.
- The Commute and Productivity Penalty: Faced with high rents, workers are pushed into grueling commutes. Research consistently shows that long commutes increase employee stress, absenteeism and decrease overall on-the-job productivity. This daily drain on energy means a less engaged and less effective workforce, translating to higher operating costs for businesses.
- Accelerating Employee Turnover: Housing insecurity is a powerful destabilizing force. When employees spend more than 30 percent of their income on housing (making them cost-burdened), they are more likely to seek higher-paying jobs elsewhere or simply move to a cheaper region (PDF). This constant, housing-driven employee turnover forces companies to spend excessive resources on continuous recruitment and training, severely impeding the growth of institutional knowledge and stability.
For professionals dedicated to community economic health, this shift demands treating housing as critical infrastructure for business.
The challenge is clear, but so is the opportunity: Housing professionals can and must take the lead by reframing housing investment as a direct workforce development strategy. This requires moving past traditional silos and forging new alliances with employers from the lens of economic development:
- Targeted Workforce Housing: The “missing middle” segment — workers who earn too much for Low-Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTC) but too little for market-rate housing — is where the workforce crisis is most acute. Solutions must be targeted. This means developing properties specifically designated for those within the 80 percent-120 percent AMI band to prioritize professionals like teachers, police and skilled trades workers who are vital to community function.
- Employer-Assisted Housing (EAH) Programs: Historically, employers constructed housing; today, modern EAH programs offer a sustainable update. These can range from employer-backed loan guarantees and down payment assistance to direct partnerships with developers where a large local employer (like a hospital or university) reserves a block of units for its staff, thereby stabilizing the resident base and reducing developer risk.
- Leveraging Data for Strategic Planning: Housing decisions should be driven by workforce data. Professionals should collaborate with economic development teams to identify job growth corridors and areas with the highest commuter outflows. By locating new, mixed-income housing developments near major job centers and along critical transit lines, the industry ensures that housing supply directly supports current and future employment needs.
San Antonio’s System Approach
Utilizing our local playbook, the Strategic Housing Implementation Plan (SHIP), our community takes a systems intersection approach to addressing our housing affordability issue. Oftentimes, systems are siloed and not working in an aligned manner. Housing is education, it is healthcare, it is workforce development.
An example is the relationship built between our local workforce development program, San Antonio Ready to Work and our San Antonio Housing Trust.
The goal is to provide residents living in Housing Trust-affiliated apartment communities with high-quality, accessible career pathways through the Ready to Work program. This includes career coaching, benefits navigation, financial counseling, training course enrollment and funding for emergencies.
The evidence is overwhelming: a thriving economy simply cannot exist without stable, attainable housing for its entire workforce. For decades, the housing sector operated primarily as a development and finance discipline. Today, we must recognize that our work is fundamentally about economic stability and talent infrastructure.
The crisis of unaffordability is not a distant threat; it is an active drain on the local economy, fueling high turnover, depressing productivity and forcing essential workers to make impossible choices. By embracing a workforce-centric strategy through targeted development for the “missing middle,” forging deep partnerships with employers and leveraging data to guide our investments, we shift the paradigm.
We have the tools and the expertise to fix this. It is time for housing professionals to step out of the silo and claim their role as critical leaders in economic development. Building homes is no longer just about shelter; it’s about building the resilient, productive workforce that will define our communities for the next generation.
